Happy Plant Sale and Open Farm!

The annual PFP Plant Sale is a great public and member event. Come to Poughkeepsie Farm Project on May 7th and 14th, from 9am to 2pm, when we will be selling nearly 100 varieties of vegetables, flowers and herbs raised in our greenhouse, as well as beautiful PFP merchandise.  Please bring containers/boxes to put 4 inch pots and plugs into.

These plant sale days are also Open Farm Days, where you can join us on a tour of the farm, meet the staff and board, learn about our programs and activities, and find out how to sign up for shareholder work hours on our new system. Our farm managers will also lead a new CSA member orientation at noon. Don’t forget to stop by the Membership Booth to see if you are eligible to receive free plants!

Poughkeepsie Farm Project is located on the Vassar Farm and Ecological Preserve at the intersection of Hooker and Raymond Avenues in Poughkeepsie, New York. Follow the driveway down past the red barn to the parking lot.

Proceeds from the Plant Sale support upgrades to farm operations and equipment. Proceeds from merchandise sales and membership donations support our education and food access programs.

PFP Alumna Starts Rock Steady Farm & Flowers

Rock Steady Farm & Flowers turns four this week -- four months old that is! As a PFP alum it feels particularly special to share the news of my new farm with all of you!

I apprenticed at PFP, under farmers Asher and Wendy, for two transformative seasons in 2010 and 2011. I moved on to manage Huguenot Street Farm for a few years, a 12 acre vegetable CSA in New Paltz. In need of some inspiration and a new challenge, I accepted the flower grower position at Sol Flower Farm in Millerton and built their cut flower operation from the ground up. Sol Flower decided to shift focus last fall, and the veggie grower and I were presented with the opportunity to purchase the equipment and CSA membership list.  Not able to pass up the opportunity, I teamed up with two amazing human beings and highly skilled farmers, Maggie Cheney and D. Rooney, to start Rock Steady Farm & Flowers in Millerton!

Rock Steady Farm & Flowers is a vegetable and professional cut flower farm with a growing CSA membership, that sells to farmer’s markets, wholesale accounts locally and in NYC, and direct to brides and grooms who want DIY wedding flowers. We are a small farm with a big vision! We are deeply rooted in social justice and have a strong commitment to making sure all of our community members have access to the food we grow. In addition, we hope to create a cooperatively owned business that empowers its workers, provides stable employment and a living wage.

Part of what inspired me to take the big leap and start a farm was our ever expanding community of support, both here in Poughkeepsie (where my partner and I still live) and in Millerton. Getting Rock Steady Farm & Flowers off the ground isn’t just about us three owners working our tails off and pouring over budgets until wee hours of the night. It’s also about the people and organizations that have stepped in and stepped up because they believe in what we are trying to do in the community.

This winter and spring our CSA members stepped up in true ‘Community Supported Agriculture’ style. They stuck with us through the farm transition and their commitment allowed us to purchase our first seeds, to buy the first tank of propane for the greenhouse, and pay the electric bills. They helped bridge that gap, which literally made all the difference. Although I’ve been working on, and managing, CSA farms for many years, it’s been in the last few months that the power of a committed CSA has actually started to settle in.

As a start up farm, I’m particularly proud of the fact that Rock Steady has been able to launch our low income CSA share program in our first year, with the goal of serving 88 families in 2016. This was possible through two important non-profit partnerships. The first, started three years ago, and is sponsored by the North East Community Center. Through this partnership we will provide vegetable boxes to 70 families in the Millerton area. We are also actively fundraising with Neighbors Helping Neighbors and The Watershed Center, to expand our program to reach an additional 18 families in Ancramdale. Our goal is to raise $12K by May 1st. Learn more about our low income CSA program and how to donate here!

The Watershed Center (WC), is a social and environmental justice retreat center, that shares the farm property with us. The energy and community around the WC were a big draw in choosing to farm in Millerton. The founders and staff have been working with us from day one and we are excited to expand our impact through integrated programming. They introduced us to The Working World, a non-extractive investment fund that supports worker owned businesses, which provided Rock Steady with the financing needed to purchase equipment, infrastructure, supplies, and the working capital to run the farm. We’re proud to be the first business to receive a loan through their new “local community fund” that’s developing!!

With all of this community support, starting Rock Steady has been both an empowering and humbling experience. It calls me back to my time at the PFP as an apprentice - having so much to learn, relying so heavily on my mentors (yes, Asher is still on speed dial) and impatiently looking forward to the first harvest!  What I learned at PFP, both in the fields and through my involvement with the sponsored share program, informs my work every single day. It’s grounding to carry forward the work of PFP, and I’m thrilled to have Rock Steady join the local network of individuals, organizations, and businesses that are committed to social and economic justice.

Follow Rock Steady’s adventures this season by following us on Instagram and Facebook, and visit our website to learn more about the farm and contribute to our low income CSA program!!

With much gratitude,

Angela Defelice

Staff Highlight: Merle Pressler, Greenhouse Manager

Staff Highlight: Merle Pressler, Greenhouse Manager

Merle, as any Hudson Valley resident will recognize by her accent, was born and raised in neighboring Estonia County, about 3000 miles northeast of Poughkeepsie.   She learned farming the hard way; digging the always frozen ground for potatoes and rutabagas in her family’s backyard and working summers picking hops as a“Daughter of Lenin” in Soviet Hungary. As she will eagerly tell you, “it was either that or Gulag”.

Merle received a degree in Nutritional Science with a minor in Kalashnikov Assembly from Tartu University. Upon graduating she was quickly appointed Quality Kontrol Director for Kalev Kandy Koncern, the giant Estonian confectionary and maker of high quality imitation chocolates. While there she yearned to be working outdoors, to be "in nature with plants" as she puts it. She came to the realization that her love of plants stemmed from the fact that they don’t talk back. Likewise, her strong desire to feed the hungry was because “People don’t talk when they’re mouths are full”, adding “at least they shouldn’t”.  In order to pursue that dream she left Estonia, eventually settling in Poughkeepsie in 2011.

As luck would have it, in 2014 the PFP hired her mid-season to replace an ailing crew member. She felt immediately at home with the PFP’s collective spirit, long hours and rock bottom wages. Farm Manager Leon quickly assessed her superpower quality- O.C.D., assigning her the position of Greenhouse and Plant Sale Manager.  Soon, the coop and greenhouse were clean and orderly as never before, everything in its proper place.  While it did take a while for the rest of the crew to learn those places everyone agrees there's a lot less of tripping over things. As she stares resolutely ahead to her 2nd full season, Merle looks forward to the opportunity of admonishing all members, staff and crew who may cross her garden path. 

Staff Highlight: Lauren McDonald, Crew Leader

Staff Highlight: Lauren McDonald, Crew Leader

Lauren McDonald came to PFP to interview in the fall of 2014, and our decision to hire her was a no brainer; we wanted her on our team.  When you meet Lauren, you can sense the speed with which her brain works. She thinks and moves with vigor that is unmatched, and if you get her talking about farming, her passion and devotion are palpable. It is clear in getting to know Lauren that she brings this fervor to every aspect of her life (including contra dancing and fiddle playing!).

            Lauren earned a BA in Environmental Science from Williams College, where she was among a small group of undergraduates to devise and establish an organic garden for students. Upon graduating, she was driven to farming as a means to address environmental and social issues in a practical way. Her love of the outdoors, hardworking nature, and desire to  be a part of a community made her decision to farm the obvious choice. After apprenticing at Hawthorne Valley Farm for two growing seasons, and Crystal Spring Farm for another, Lauren came to PFP. Lauren’s aptitude for farming is demonstrated in her unwearied determination on even the cruelest heat of summer days. She set the pace for accelerated tasks and efficient transitions this past season. In addition to her impassioned presence on the farm, Lauren demonstrated her sincere dedication to PFP’s mission in her role as Food Share Manager.  She formed strong relationships with our emergency food provider partners, and often volunteered with them on her days off. We are honored to share that she will be returning to the farm to work as Crew Leader, a new position that will foster her growth into a management role. 

PFP Internship Leads to Change of Plans

PFP Internship Leads to Change of Plans

By Ellie Marble, Education Intern

If anyone had asked me a year ago what I was planning on doing after graduating from Vassar College, I would have laughed nervously and changed the subject. After a year of interning with foster care social workers, I felt stuck on a path that did not feel genuine to me. The truth was that I had no idea what I was really passionate about. I hadn’t considered the possibility of changing my mind, not going to grad school for social work, and doing something altogether different…. Then, last semester I saw that there was an opening to be an education intern at Poughkeepsie Farm Project. When I saw this, I realized that I had been itching for the outdoors and to work with kids in more constructive and fun ways than I had been for the past year, and so I jumped at the opportunity. I am so unbelievable grateful that I did.

I have learned so much during my short time with PFP about the Poughkeepsie community; being an educator; the connections between food, community, and justice; and of course, myself. This is what I am passionate about: being a part of a community that works together to nourish each other’s bodies and minds. Working with PFP has deeply influenced how I have decided to finish my time at Vassar. My focus has shifted to taking classes that discuss issues of environmental racism, accessibility and equitable education. I still tremble slightly when the question of post-college life comes up, but I am much more confident today than I have ever been that I am on the right path.

I am currently a senior Educational Studies major and am in the process of writing a thesis that examines food justice in Poughkeepsie City School Districts. What I hope to bring to the discussion of food injustice in America is a case study of how food and education can act together to promote a more community-based and equitable society. Through the framing of just food and education as human rights, I plan to investigate how Poughkeepsie City School Districts and community organizations are working together to promote positive community cooperation, sustainable models of health, and secure and informed relationships to local food. I plan to challenge the history of food politics in the United States to examine the reasons why the food system is enmeshed with the intersections of multiple structural oppressions and how community members and grassroots organizations can work together to reclaim the environmental and food sovereignty that was systematically stripped from them. In looking at Poughkeepsie Farm Project and other local organizations working to promote a just food system for Poughkeepsie, I will assess the tensions that operate to promote and prevent the actualization of just food practices in public schools in order to discover ways to strengthen togetherness in the fight for everyone’s right to nutritious, affordable, and fair food.